Miscellaneous Items
This page describes technologies which you might find useful but which are not covered in any of the previous sections:
- Accessible watches from the RNIB.
The Royal National Institute of Blind people (RNIB) offers a wide range of easy-to-see, tactile and talking watches. Talking watches are easy to use as they announce the time at the press of a button. Tactile watches are a bit harder to use but have the advantage that you can unobtrusively check the time which is useful in the middle of the night! - Talking colour indicator from Cobolt.
Very light and easy to use, this device has a wide range of useful applications from checking the colour of clothes to the ripeness of fruit while shopping! Simply select one of the three available volume levels and hold the front of the unit against almost any surface - paper, cloth, wood, plastic etc and the colour will be spoken. The device is available for multiple languages and costs about £50 including battery. - Bank note money indicator from Cobolt.
Available in two versions, one for Sterling and one for Euros. The bank note money detector has a simple design, and with a single operating button, it is very easy to use. The button when depressed gives discrete vibrations according to the note value. It has been designed to enable people to verify the value of banknotes when paying for goods or receiving change. It is small, light and unobtrusive to use. It costs about £18. - Talking battery charger from CareTek.
This enables the charging of rechargeable NiCD (Nickel-Cadmium), NiMH (Nickel-Metal-Hydride) or RAM (Rechargeable-Alkaline-Managanese) Type AAA, AA, C or D as well as 9V batteries. Each of the four channels is monitored separately, therefore batteries can be charged in any combination of sizes and chemistry at the same time. It automatically identify the type of battery as well as defective batteries and charges it in an optimal way ensuring long battery life. Batteries cannot be over-charged. It speaks the charge state of each channel at the press of a button. It costs about £120. - Braille labeller from the RNIB.
It you can read braille this is a low cost and simple way to label items. It is a hand held device which embosses braille onto self-adhesive tape. The dial which selects the desired braille character is embossed with the braille so that you can use it, and it is also printed with the alphabetic equivalent so that a person who cannot read braille can still create the braille label. - Pen Friend audio labeller from the RNIB.
Use this to record a message and associate it with a self-adhesive label which you can attach to food items, including freezer items, film and music collections, household objects or even to organise letters and other paperwork as well as record shopping lists or leave audio messages. You can also use it as a portable notetaker, record your message and keep track of it by placing the allocated label in a small notebook or in your diary. To playback hold the PenFriend over the label. It costs about £55 with 127 labels. You can buy extra labels at about £10 for a pack of 381.
Page last modified: 23 December 2009
